Highlight News

Bridgestone Motorsport Wrap for 29th June 2009

Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi dominated the seventh round of the MotoGP championship in Assen to win his 100th Grand Prix and become the undisputed leader of the FIM MotoGP World Championship.

Using medium compound front and rear Bridgestone slicks, the Italian controlled the pace throughout, setting a new race lap record en route to clinching his second win in succession.

Also using the medium compound slicks, teammate Jorge Lorenzo finished second to take second position in the championship.

Ducati Team's Casey Stoner was still suffering from the illness he experienced in Catalunya as he completed the podium with a solitary ride chasing Lorenzo. The Australian now trails Rossi and Lorenzo in the overall standings after the trio had been level on points heading into the Assen race.

With a dry track for both the warm-up session and the 26-lap race the most popular tyre combination was the medium compound front and rear Bridgestone slicks, favoured for their durability.

"Although the gaps at the front were quite big today, the pace that Valentino set was faster than the circuit's lap record from last year, and Jorge also lapped at the same pace as the existing record, so I am happy with the performance of the medium compound Bridgestone slicks today," said Tohru Ubaukata, Manager of Motorcycle Race Tyre Development at Bridgestone Motorsport.

"We saw that the medium compound was clearly the faster option over a race distance, although the performance of the soft compound was also good."

Rossi now joins Giacomo Agostini to become only the second rider in history to reach 100 race wins.

"Great, I am so happy! It's a special day I will never forget in my life. To arrive at 100 wins is fantastic and here is a special place because my father won here in 250cc," said Rossi.

"I felt confident on the bike from Thursday and made a good start in the race. With more temperature today I had great grip from the tyres so it is possible to improve my time from yesterday. It was a perfect race."

Only nine points separate the top three as the teams now move on to Round 8 at Laguna Seca in the US.